Topics

The first week of the New Year and the new term will give the children the opportunity to chat about their Christmas holidays. I am sure that there will be many new toys that the children want to show us and lots of things that they want to tell us about!

Around the World

The topic that we will be covering for the rest of the half term is ‘Around the world’. The topic will be fascinating for the children and staff. We will look closely at our world using reference books, stories, atlases, the internet and pictures of people and places around the world. We will also use first-hand experiences working with our multi-cultural families. There will be opportunities to look at costumes, traditions and cultures. We will have opportunities to taste foods from other countries and we will listen to and dance to music and songs.

We have a number of parents from different countries at Pre-school. Those of you that fall into this category please do start thinking about possible ways in which you could help us with our topic. Maria, Amanda and I will chat to you over the next few weeks. Perhaps you could come in and read to the children in a different language, teach us a song, help us with cooking, suggest a craft activity, or show us some traditional costumes?

We will ensure that the topic covers all three prime and four specific areas of learning. St. Andrew’s staff have such a comprehensive knowledge of the Foundation Stage that we are able to find several Early Learning Goal statements in all our resources. The large blue information board in the front hall describes the development statements relevant to each topic. Our planning also gives you some ideas to use at home, as well as details of activities that we will be using during our sessions. If you would like a copy of any of our planning documents at any time, please let me know and I will be happy to email or print them for you. When you are parent helper, please read the cards on our colour tables to give you information about our resources and don’t forget to read through the Activity Planning Sheets displayed in the front hall with all completed craft activities.